The Team Flare Holiday Special
by Yugoslavia
Summary: Celosia mysteriously receives a Nintendo Wii for the holidays.
1. Start

The box had arrived at the door, resting atop a black doormat. It was a beaten, brown cardboard box, thick white straps of plastic wrapped around the ends to keep it all together. At the bottom and around the corners, dark spots had formed where water had soaked in.

Inside the home, no one was there to answer. Though the day's sun had risen high, it was obscured by dense cloud cover and thick, white snow drifts that surrounded the house on all sides, exposing only the edges of a snow-covered roof.

* * *

The bathroom door opened, swinging and whining softly. A small, steamy haze exited through the small opening in the door, dissipating quickly in the air. The light obscured the head of the figure peeking out, shining bright through an incomprehensible haze that came behind her. A fan in the bathroom gently whirred, eliminating the dense moisture and cooling the heated space. As the figure slid her head through the space, staring out from behind the door that she had opened just wide enough to stick her head out of.

Narrowing her eyes in confusion, Celosia stared out, a slicked lock of purple hair falling aside from where it had been slicked back in the shower. Her teeth ground silently, curious at the sound she had heard in the first place.

Her head slid back behind the door and she closed it softly. A few gentle thumps came from behind the door, the squeal of metal rings ringing out as she shut the shower curtain. Moments later, she opened the door again, letting the hinges whine as she stepped out with a padded, muffled footfall, walking out in pale pastel green slippers and a matching green bathrobe, the long ends of the robe that reached down to her ankles swaying silently as she walked.

As she passed through the small bathroom, passing by tiny sink in the corner, Celosia grabbed a hand towel that hung off a small towel rack, flipping it inside out and drying her hair as she walked. She stood at the entrance of the bathroom, gazing out into the living room through tired eyes. Still seeing nothing out of the ordinary the living room, she finished running the towel over her hair, slicking her hair back with her palm, then stepping back towards the sink and draping the towel over the rack again.

All around Celosia as she walked through the living room and down the small hall to the kitchen, the windows were filled with snow pressed the glass panes, thickly packed and layered with dense frozen sheets of gray.

At the front door, where Celosia stood inches from, she contemplated the handle, knowing that someone very well could be on the other side. After all, it was what she swore she had heard, someone at the door ringing a bell. The whole house was silent, not a single voice or clattering echo coming through the walls. Over her shoulder, where she looked briefly to the table beside her, her eyes were seemingly transfixed on a single object; a curved piece of chrome-coated metal, resting at the center apex of the curved side. Beneath, a center piece of purple-tinted glass running through the center. As Celosia found herself hesitating before the door, she took a step back, bringing herself beside the table and picking up the visor, turning it over silently in her hands. Beneath the rubber seals and the foam piece around the very edge of the visor, Celosia could see a crack in the glass display of the visor. She cursed under her breath and chided herself, knowing she very well could've used the filters on her visor to get herself out of the current situation.

Setting the visor back down, Celosia's hand glided along the surface of the table, silently reaching for a Pokeball that had rolled beside the salt shakers in the center of the table. As she picked it up, clutching it like life support, Celosia took soft and silent steps towards the door.

After a hesitant moment, Celosia opened the door quickly, putting herself in the newly opened space with her Pokeball ready to be flung.

There was nothing.

Celosia had realized the defensive pose she had just put herself in, and eased up. She took a moment, putting the Pokeball back on the table and let it roll lazily towards the salt shaker where it had been moments ago.

As she walked towards the open door, Celosia saw the box, resting at the foot of the door, soaked and hammered. Squatting down in front of it, at the cusp of the entrance where the frigid winds blew in and chilled her in what little coverings she had, she gazed down at the packaging. The brown cardboard of the box looked as though it had been through a lot; the edges were frayed and torn slightly, covered in thick strips of masking tape and held together in many different layers. The address on it was correct and at the right place, but there was no return address.

Grasping the plastic straps that had been wrapped around the whole of the box, Celosia lifted it like a handle. There was only meager weight to it, and she pulled it into the house with ease, shutting the door.

* * *

Bryony snoozed on the couch silently, lounging on her side with her head resting on her folded up red uniform jacket. Her red boots rested upright beside her, her red pants still on with her half-buttoned white dress shirt. Her face was half buried in the jacket, her gently twinkling visor still on.

With a deep maroon blanket folded in her arms, Celosia let the bottom half of the blanket spill out, a whoosh of air catching the blanket as she spread it in the dimly lit living room, draping it over Celosia's body. Silently, listening to the gentle snoring of her friend, Celosia ran her fingers through Bryony's hair, tousling it gently and stroking it with care, before smoothing it out.

The beaten cardboard box rested in the center of the floor, before a dead fireplace and a powered-off TV. The white plastic straps that surrounded the box had been cut away, revealing the package in its weathered, mildly soaked glory. As Celosia kneeled beside it, folding her legs beneath her bathrobe, Celosia took a box cutter from inside her robe, opening the lid of the cardboard box with a single swipe, tearing with ease through the packaging.

As the top of the box came off, packing peanuts spilling out and more being tossed aside as Celosia knocked them out of the box, her eyes lit up. A thin clear sheet of thinly cut foam lifted and exposed the white box beneath. Her expression turned from enthrallment to confusion.

It was a rectangular white box, a new sheen to the matted paper surface. The minimalist gray words bore the name 'Wii'.


	2. Connect

Celosia sat with her legs tucked under one another, the Wii box sitting in her lap with both of her arms draped over the box. With a look of dumbstruck, almost amazed wonder, Celosia's eyes searched over the bare white surface in hopes of deciphering the reason for the box's arrival by just the facts she had there. How had it come to _them_?

As she had several times, Celosia gave a passing look up to Bryony, seeing that she was completely sacked-out, napping through the early hours of the morning. She dwelled on her sleeping, silently contemplating possibilities as her gaze panned back down to the Wii box.

The box had many layers, as Celosia was finding out. A gray door had opened by ease of the box cutter in her hand, the translucent circle of clear plastic splitting at its folded seam. When the door flap of the box slid down, Celosia was faced with a new visual sensation; a neon blue wall of cardboard. There were two blue boxes stacked atop one another inside the white box, respectively labeled '1' and '2'.

Wedging her fingers between the two boxes, Celosia found a small indent in the bottom the box labeled '1', and slid it out delicately, a muffled whine coming from the surrounding paper walls. Tucked layers of thin foam popped up from the front as the upper surface of the box was exposed. Plastic wrap sheets that had been formerly packed down sprung up, gently unfurling from the shapes they had been stuffed into in the tight enclosure.

Celosia set the tray atop the box, letting her eyes pour over the contents in the box. Her lips curled into a frustrated frown as she became more confused.

The first thing set in the cardboard tray was a plastic bag full of manuals and various papers. A faded ad for Nintendo Power faced outward, showing an ad for an outlandish game she had never seen or heard of. Celosia set the bag aside, just beneath her knee, examining the many different wrapped packages inside the tray, some with individual slots.

She unwrapped an oblong piece of plastic, cradling it in her hands. The whole thing was rectangular and boxy, the inside of it sloped as well like a ramp. It was painted a metallic silver, sides glowing with reflected light on its matted, plastic surface.A small clear plastic disk had been inserted with molded tabs into grooves in the gray base, locked in tightly, masking a disclaimer in several different languages. Cradling this in both of her hands, Celosia found herself taking several seconds to inspect the construction of it.

Several cables had tucked into a walled section of the tray, wrapped with foam sheets. Prying them loose of where they had been tucked in, Celosia set down the cables on her lap, sliding them out and unfurling them. It was a ribbed cable with three separate ends, yellow red and white, a thick boxy connector at the very end. As she quickly made silent judgments about the function of the cables, she reached into the same section of tray, pulling up the next item. The next one was a long plastic item with a black glossy covering. A long wiry cable snaked out of the center of the plastic item and dangled into her lap, the hard angles of the folded cable retained as they zig-zagged out of their folded position. The end of the cable was similarly boxy and orange-tipped.

A small, curled package rested towards the foot of the tray. Lifting it up and examining the item inside the plastic bag, it was curled perfectly with a twist-tie securing the white cable. The end of it was similarly boxy with a cable end, but the other end was a shimmering white, sculpted to fit any hand. Though Celosia had first considered setting it down, she removed the fold-over seal at the end of the bag and let it drop onto the box with a gentle thump. She felt how comfortable the sculpted piece was in her hand, her thumb finding the joystick immediately. She waggled the rubber joystick, feeling it click satisfyingly in the octagonal grooves. To her surprise, two trigger-like buttons rested directly beneath her fingertips, pressing in with equal precision and pleasure. With a unknowing smile spread across her lips, Celosia—

Bryony shuffled silently on the couch.

Celosia's head had whipped up to Bryony. A frayed mess of purple hair spilled over her brow, slightly damp from the shower she had forgotten about moments ago.

"Oh Arceus," Celosia cursed under her breath, feeling the frayed ends slowly split into thousands of tiny points as they spread over her brow. She ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the wet surface that had turned into feathered, unkempt slicks all over her hair.

Securing the slippers over her feet, Celosia set the box beside her. Her legs unfurled from beneath her robe's length and stood herself up. She let out another slew of curses beneath her breath, stepping over the cables and mess she had made on the floor.

* * *

Celosia frowned as she faced her reflection in the mirror. Though her hair been slicked down atop her head, turned to a purple sheen that had been combed to the side into a perfect curve, there was something else bothering her. She silently did the buttons all up the center of her chest and straightened the white dress shirt she wore.

Then she figured it out. All at once, she put the pieces together, her purple eyes flaring in the dim light of the tiny bathroom.

There was an unusual, unheard of sound echoing down the hall, coming from the living room. In the silent house it was jarring, making Celosia freeze in place. She was holding a brush, the black teeth hovering close to a tuft of hair that had stuck up just beside her ear.

Shuffling in her seafoam green slippers, Celosia walked close to the pair of pants that rested on the clothes hamper, the fashionable red pants of her uniform. As she lifted the brim of the pants, her hand gliding over the ribbed surface, she found the belt loops and pulled on the thick metal belt buckle, the belt slithering loose of the fabric belt loops. As Celosia nudged the flaps of her dress shirt up, she looked over the material of her black pants. A thick black band of stretchable material already hugged her waist, similar to the rest of the material of the leggings that hugged her figure. Scowling, Celosia let the belt fall to the floor. She tipped the long legs of the uniform pants into the hamper and let the legs collapse atop one another. Looking in, Celosia took a passing glance to the soaked red overcoat of her uniform.

Celosia froze again, her foot poised as it slipped out of her slipper. Turning slowly, she realized she was hearing more of the strange noise, hearing a series of new chimes over the echoing, ambient music. She then moved quickly to put on the black ballet flats beside her slippers.

The noise was seemingly louder as she passed down the hall. More of the chimes and what seemed like loud, foley-like button presses came. The music would rise in swells and seemingly fade in and out like the tides, despite its simple composition and mildly simple instrumentation, seeming childlike and simple. The closer Celosia got, the louder things seemed like the whirring, buzzing fan that had now appeared.

Celosia passed around the corner, going from the dark hallway to a living room she expected to also be dark. Instead, the flat-panel TV mounted to the wall now had bright white light glowing with a heavenly aura. The screen was lit with a white background and several colorful icons, arranged in a grid with shapely curves constructing the rectangular icons in their gray slots. Animations flew and gently turned inside the glossy icons, indicating excitement and discovery around every corner. A darker gray tab along the bottom showed the time and date, as well as two circular icons in the bottom left and right, the right indicating there was a message waiting.

To the right of the TV, resting on the wood-paneled TV stand that stood just below the mounted TV, a white plastic box stood like an iconic monolith. An ominous, futuristic blue rim glowed around a black slat through the center of the front edge. Above, a bright green light glowed softly. It was the game console from the front of the Wii box, the Nintendo Wii.

Celosia walked carefully through the center of the living room, watching the carpeted floor as she walked past the completely opened Wii box. The plastic bags and foam sheets had been folded up nicely, the twist ties organized into piles by color. The manuals had been removed from their bags, stacked up neatly with exception to the Operation's Guide, which was turned to the final third.

As Celosia's gaze panned up, she saw that Bryony was missing from her place on the couch. She continued to watch with wide-eyed interest and concern, hopping quickly over the organized Wii parts on the floor. As she passed around the dividing wall of the living room and entered the light of the kitchen, Celosia turned her gaze up, freezing once again.

Bryony looked up from the kitchen table, standing over it, a Wii Remote in hand with the gray rubber jacket peeled backwards. The battery door had been set on the table alongside a large pack of AA batteries. One of the batteries had been half-inserted, another tucked beneath Bryony's fingers.

"Bryony—Good morning!" Celosia said, relieving her conscience as she spoke the words. A nervous chuckle entered her voice as she realized she was at a loss for words. "Glad you got the chance to sleep in, heh heh!"

Bryony smile silently, finishing her task of replacing the batteries on the remote before shutting the door, smoothing the rubber Wii Remote jacket. The rubber door of the connector port on the bottom of the remote tucked in neatly with access to the wrist strap, one that Bryony slipped over her folded fingers and tightened with a neat plastic snap.

"I really have no idea where on earth this could've come from. Really, I'm not even sure why I opened it," said Celosia. "I can't imagine anyone who knows we're here... I'm amazed though, it made it in one piece and so _promptly_. Heh, it's amazing! It wasn't even ordered—Wait, did you order it?

* * *

Bryony had her attention locked dead ahead of her, eyes glossed over as she stared into the TV screen. Clutched in her hand, the Wii Remote moved and angled its pointer at her command as she leaned forward and felt herself engrossed in the TV.

On screen, the cursor took the white shape of a hand with a blue '1' plastered in the center, gliding across the screen with ease and precision. It hovered over glassy white buttons, arrows at the bottom of the screen as Bryony selected from a list of hairstyles for a virtual character; her Mii. After selecting the most accurate hairstyle, she hovered her cursor over a menu beside the rows of hairstyles, selecting from a wide range of colors a washed-out, dirty blonde color for her hair. She watched as, in flash of cartoon animation, the hair color changed, turning to the color she had selected. As she exited that selection, heading to a tab along the top for eyes, she made her way through menus as she searched through another catalog.

Celosia, who sat on the floor beside where Bryony sat on the couch, leaned back against the foot of the couch with her legs crossed but propped up as her arms braced both of her knees, holding them loosely with her fingers laced together. She looked up to Bryony, awaiting an answer to her question, but soon became distracted from the popping sounds of button presses coming from the TV speakers. She watched as Bryony, who had become accustomed to the menus in the Mii Maker, more quickly created a personality for herself. Curling her lips, Celosia found herself in the midst of a silent fascination with her creation.

"You're pretty darn good at this," said Celosia. "Have you done this before, like practiced or—? I guess I never really knew what an eye you had for something like this. I guess you probably see yourself in the mirror daily, but I mean—well—"

Bryony had moved to a separate menu, a new tab she had accessed on the screen. This was for eyebrows, and as she looked through thin and thick ones, ones with high angles, smooth arching, and some flat and boxy, she found herself trying on ones with thick shape and rectangular, hard angles. When she found one that she wanted, she took to the adjustable controls to the right of her, widening the brows significantly.

"Bry... Your eyebrows aren't _really_ that thick. I mean, they don't look bad—on there or on you in real life—but you probably don't need to make them so pronounced..." said Celosia, a hint of careful criticism in her voice.

As Celosia looked up to Bryony to see if what she had said had registered, she was met with a blank, almost dead stare. She took a moment to pause as she wondered to herself if Bryony was processing what she had said, but then Celosia realized that Bryony had fully understood what she had said, and that was her reaction. She felt herself shrink down both mentally and physically, embarrassment becoming visible in her cheeks. Swallowing uncomfortably, she watched as Bryony went on to adjust her height.

On the last menu, Bryony clicked on the name portion, pulling up the software keyboard, punching in her name with quickness and precision, a flurry of digital taps sounding out as the cursor raced from one corner to the other. When she hit the overwhelmingly large 'OK' button in the bottom right corner, the keyboard disappeared, filling in her name in the slot beside her Mii's information. Lastly, she clicked the 'Favorite' checkbox, filling in an orange crown stamp. Cartoon lines exploded from her Mii's pants as they turned red.

"Way to go," Celosia smiled.

Smiling, Bryony saved her Mii, pulling up a whirling blue circle in the center of the TV screen.

"Do you think you could make mine?"

As both Bryony and Celosia's head turned to look up at the source of the voice behind the couch, Bryony took the news more calmly than Celosia did. Celosia leapt from the floor, yelping in surprise as she quickly took to her feet, careful to hop around the remains of the Wii box. Hands held defensively, it took her more than a few moments to tame the wild look of bewilderment in her eyes.

"M-Mable! What a pleasant s-surprise!" Celosia choked out. In her nervousness, Celosia clutched for the apex of her throat, feeling it convulse before she let out a loud, pained and nervous burp.

Mable was less nervous. With both her hands on the hips of her uniform, the twin slats on her steel visor emitting bright blue light in the dark of the living room, her blue lips were pulled into a tight, pucker-like scowl. She put a finger on a circular piece of metal on the side of her visor, twisting with her forefinger on it like a dial, a pneumatic hiss coming from between her eyes as the visor split in two, separating from the center latch, rotating both of the halved eye-pieces vertically and raising them up and behind her ears. With her naked eyes, she gave the two of them a harsh and confused stare. Just below her poised, angry blue eyebrows, the bare hint of a white scar trailed down to her eye.

"Look at this whole nest of rattlesnakes I found here. Hibernating for the winter, fatty?" Mable hissed at Celosia, almost spitting at her.

Celosia turned white with an anger that burned under the skin and stared at Mable with wide eyes. Both of the hands by her side had turned to fists, knuckles whiting to the bone. A passing glance to Bryony brought some relief to her, seeing that she was more confused than anything, but she continually directed her attention to Mable. She turned her head up sharply, huffing silently and whipping her hair up so that her bangs straightened near immediately.

Celosia cleared her throat. "What do you want?" she asked.

Narrowing her eyes, poised brows lowering down to her eyes like snakes, Mable stared out from eyes surrounded by thick black eyeliner. The sneer on her lips turned more cartoonish, the crease between her lips and her nose turning dark as it turned in. Slowly, silently, she licked the gleaming white surface of her large teeth, continuing to process the scene before her like it was happening in slow motion.

"Just what _are_ you two doing here?" asked Mable. "Playing—what?— _Video games_?"

"Don't tell me this is another episode where you're extremely jealous over something," said Celosia, letting her disgust flow out of her in a single sigh masked under her breath.

" _I'm not jealous!_ " Mable squealed angrily. "You are all—all— _shirking_ responsibility and giving it all to _me!_ Well I'm not doing that! No! Never! Not when you guys are all playing video games! That's _insanity_!" she shouted, angrily towards the ceiling. She made vigorous, impassioned gestures skyward, her hands held out in front of her, fingers clenching and shooting out like they were trying to blast off of her hand, her arms shaking with each angered point she made. "Why do _you_ get to play video games? _I_ want to play video games! I don't want to do Lysandre's dirty work. I want time, freedom! I want to enjoy this holiday— _the_ holidays—like I always did and used to. I hate having to work the holidays. Why should you get the holiday when _I_ have to work? _I_ should be playing video games!"

" _Oh_ , you want to play video games?" Celosia shouted, her voice incredibly loud in the small room.

Bryony turned slightly, looking up to Celosia, watching with dead eyes and incredible interest as Celosia shook with rage, one that made her turn completely white, closing her mouth as her jaw twitched soundlessly in her skin. She waited with trepidation for Celosia's reply, a rebuttal to follow up her challenge.

Instead, Celosia reached for and gripped her hands together, then put them back by her sides, curled into fists. Her eyes twitched to the side, examining the space around the couch before the wall to the kitchen. She watched in front of her, where Bryony sat and where she had sat on the floor moments ago. Finally, she turned her gaze up to Mable, who seemed confused and waiting for Celosia's reply.

With a single flurry of steps, Celosia dashed around to the far end of the couch, putting herself vertical with Mable. Her arms were continually poised beside her as they always had, but her legs were poised more like a sprinter. With a few, rapid and airy breaths through her nose, watching every move of Mable's and not paying attention to her seeming confusion and how bizarre all of it seemed to her, Celosia found herself leaping into action. With a full-blow sprint, Celosia ran at Mable, silently, throwing herself head-on into Mable and bringing her down to the ground with a dull thud.

* * *

Crinkling the thick plastic bag, Celosia pressed the bag of ice to her chin, easing where a purple bruise was cracking through on her blemish-free skin. Though her gaze turned down every so often both to make sure the bag of ice was keeping together and in longing stares into her lap to give herself time to think about earlier, her attention was mostly to the flat-panel TV, the sounds of the Mii Plaza tune worming its way into her ear. As she worked the fingers of her free hand beneath the hand already on and pressing the bag of ice to her, she let out a dull sigh, letting her fingers flex and regain their lost heat.

"Do you see those curled ones?" asked Celosia, momentarily wincing as her bruised chin brushed against a hard plastic edge of the bag of ice. She pointed to the screen, looking up to Bryony who sat on the couch and operated the Wii Remote. "Those ones that looks like whips from like the devil or something? She has ones more like that."

Frowning, then puffing her cheeks as her blank eyes raced between the currently selected option and Celosia's suggestion, Bryony made her call. The tiny speaker clicked out from the center of the Wii Remote as she picked Celosia's recommended ones. The white-gloved cursor moved to the right, selecting from the many adjustable options and flattened them vertically, stretching them to the left and right with two clicks, and then spread them from the center with a single click.

After contemplating the eyebrows momentarily, Bryony turned her gaze down to Celosia's as if to ask 'how's that?' to her, to which Celosia, who was staring at her, turned her head and looked up to it.

Adjusting her sitting position on the floor as she thought silently, Celosia narrowed her head and shook her head gently. "No, something's a tad off... They need to seem more pronounced I think."

Sighing, Bryony examined what she had already done on screen and then turned to the panel of adjustments to the right, turning them back to where they had been moments ago.

"And then for blue hair," said Celosia, "we should probably use just black. Her hair is pretty dark anyway." As she finished her thought, Celosia turned her head up to the new figure entering the door; Mable, clutching a white towel, bluish hair wrapped up in a towel atop her head with curling, frayed ends sticking out from beneath the towel, the smell of shower on her, a bandage strapped over her cheek.

"What's going on? Is this me?" asked Mable, staring intently at the TV.

"Shut up," replied Celosia cooly.


End file.
